Giving Tuesday

Have you heard of Giving Tuesday? We have Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday to encourage shopping, shopping, and more shopping, but giving back during the holiday season often gets lost in the shuffle. There is nothing wrong with purchasing gifts during the holidays, but a new national movement is trying to remind us that the holidays are also a time to share time, money, and resources with those who are less fortunate.

Tree Trust encourages you to think about what you have to give. Do you have time to volunteer? Or do you prefer to share your financial resources? You can choose to do either of these things from the front page of the Tree Trust website. Select “Donate Now” or “Get Involved” to learn how you can be an active giver with Tree Trust.

You can also subscribe to the Tree Trust e-newsletter from the front page of our website to stay informed of volunteer opportunities and general Tree Trust happenings. We unfortunately will not have many volunteer opportunities until spring since we can't plant trees in frozen ground, but you’ll be “in the know” of others things going on with Tree Trust.

If you don't have time to volunteer, but are interested in supporting Tree Trust's work, please consider making a donation. Or, do you need a meaningful gift for someone who has everything? Or for someone who cares deeply about the environment? Consider making a contribution in their honor to our Green Futures fund.

Please join us tomorrow for Giving Tuesday. Learn more at givingtuesday.org or follow #GivingTuesday on Twitter.

What We're Thankful For

Tree Trust has a lot to be thankful for this year and in the spirit of Thanksgiving we would like to reflect on some of the things that make us thankful for being a part of this great organization.

• We had five successful Learning with Trees events this year. Besides the events being fun, it also gives us an opportunity to see budding environmental stewards as children help to improve the landscape at their schools by planting trees!

• With the help of volunteers we recently planted trees in North Minneapolis, Eden Prairie, and Fridley. Volunteer participation allows us to have these events, and also gives people an opportunity to work alongside their neighbors while bettering their community.

• In September we snagged some media attention when we teamed up with Jason Mraz, KS95, and Reverb for a planting event. The publicity was great and only helps to raise awareness of the importance of our work.

• Last but not least on our list of things that we're thankful for this fall, we are thankful for being one of four finalists for the Toro Grant Initiative "Green Spaces Make Better Places," which makes us eligible to win a $7,000 grant. You can help us win that grant by voting here.

Before you go out shopping on Black Friday remember that dedicating a Green Futures tree to someone makes a great Christmas gift! We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

E-Cycling for Schools

OceanTech, an organization dedicated to providing environmentally responsible electronics recycling, is offering its 3^rd Annual Educators’ E-cycling Initiative until November 1, 2012. Tree Trust will receive a one cent donation from OceanTech for every pound of e-waste that it collects from schools.

OceanTech is improving our Twin Cities environment through recycling and responsibly disposing of e-waste, preventing harmful chemicals from leaching into groundwater, air, and soil. They will help to improve our environment further by contributing to the Green Futures fund, which supports community tree planting events in Twin Cities parks and recreation areas.

So far this year, they have collected 95,532 pounds of e-waste! That's $955.32 that they will contribute to planting trees through the Tree Trust Green Futures fund. Can you help us increase that number? Speak to your school, you child's school, or a school in your neighborhood and find out if they have some old, unused electronics that need to be disposed of properly.

There are nine days left for your school to participate, so what are you waiting for? Learn more about OceanTech from their website, or call Josh Heath from OceanTech at 612-331-4456 or email him for more information.

Volunteer this fall!

Have you ever volunteered with Tree Trust? Would you like to? We are looking for volunteers to help plant trees as part of our annual GreenFutures plantings. The first will be on Saturday, October 6 in Eden Prairie at Forest Hills Park and the second will be in Fridley on Saturday, October 13 at the Springbrook Nature Center. 

Tree Trust staff and Tree Trainers train volunteers on-site on the proper method of planting a tree so no experience is necessary - just be willing to learn, have fun and enjoy the outdoors! Plantings are family-friendly, so feel free to bring your kids  as long as they are well-supervised. Check out the volunteer page of our website to learn more and sign up!

Are you interested in becoming a Tree Trainer? Tree Trainers learn how to lead other volunteers and students in planting trees properly at Green Futures and Learning with Trees plantings. Tree Trainers have to attend a training and volunteer at two events per year. We just happen to have a Tree Trainer Training this Saturday, September 29 with a few openings left. Sign up here!

Green Futures gives volunteers a chance to actively participate in improving our local environment. In addition, individuals can support the program through contributions to the Green Futures Fund. Nearly $50,000 has been donated to Green Futures since 2008 and each dollar donated by individuals is matched by a local family foundation.

Each $150 in the fund plants another tree for a total of over 720 trees planted in the Twin Cities to date! Trees planted through Green Futures are six- to ten-feet tall well-established trees which have a much greater chance of survival than seedlings.

Please consider joining us for an event this fall. Volunteering with Tree Trust is a great, hands-on way to give back to the community!

Community Forestry Highlights

This summer we had a great intern, Christina, who did a lot of video work for Tree Trust. We'll be posting some of her work in the coming weeks and months. Here is the first installment:

Enjoy!

Tree Trust partners with Groupon Grassroots

Tree Trust is partnering with Groupon Grassroots to raise money to plant trees through our Green Futures program! What is Groupon Grassroots? An offshoot of the popular Groupon deal-of-the-day website, the Grassroots initiative is "a new way to discover local causes, rally together, and lend a helping hand." It provides an opportunity for nonprofits to raise awareness for their cause, reach out to new donors, and raise money to support their mission.

For Tree Trust, this partnership will help spread the word of our Green Futures initiative and help us get more trees in the ground in our community!

If you are already a Groupon subscriber in the Twin Cities metro area, you will receive email notification of our campaign. Tree Trust must have 65 people contribute $10 for us to benefit at all. 

Since this benefits our Green Futures campaign every donation will be matched dollar for dollar by our anonymous donor, doubling your impact!  And if that isn't enough, once we have raised enough to have a community planting event, you can plant trees with us as a volunteer.

Consider contributing to Tree Trust via Groupon. New donors will be more likely to give once they see that others are excited about a cause. Your contribution of just $10 will help us plant trees, attract new donors, and raise awareness of our efforts!

Impressions of 2011 - Community Forestry

It seems as though each passing year welcomes a new threat to our urban forest. Emerald ash borer, Dutch elm disease, burr oak blight, thousand cankers, oak wilt, poor planting practices, other invasive pests, drought, and violent weather all seem to be conspiring against the beautiful trees that make the Twin Cities one of the most livable communities in the country. While many thousands of trees are lost each year to pests, disease, weather and just plain old age, our Community Forestry programming has been working hard to reverse the damage.

2011 started with celebration as one of our most dedicated volunteers, Giampaolo Malin, received a “Be the Change” award from HandsOn Twin Cities for his amazing efforts volunteering for Tree Trust. A dedicated Tree Trust Tree Trainer, Giampaolo rarely misses an opportunity to educate tree planting volunteers on proper planting techniques at our community plantings.

Spring arrived just in time for a beautiful Arbor Day planting along Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis. Approximately 100 volunteers got dirty planting nearly 1,000 shrubs and 50 trees on a lovely May morning. With assistance from Tree Trust’s Landscape Services and Young Adult Conservation Crews, the volunteers had enough shovels, wheel barrows and mulch to get the job done. 

 

Learning with Trees at Nellie Stone Johnson

As I increased in size (I was five months pregnant at the start of planting season), so did my staff. Diana Preisen, a former Young Adult Conservation Corps supervisor, made the leap to forestry; and Emily Hanson, a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota, came in as a summer intern. The newly expanded forestry staff was kept busy with Learning with Trees plantings at Somerset Elementary School in West St. Paul, Hilltop Primary School in Minnetrista, and Nellie Stone Johnson Community School in North Minneapolis.  Through this program, over 1,000 students participated in the planting of trees on their school grounds. If you ever have an opportunity to volunteer for our school plantings, I highly recommend it…it will brighten your day.

The ReForest St. Louis Park program brought 40 new trees to Dakota Park in St. Louis Park. Volunteers showed up bright and early eager to work. Their efforts transformed this neighborhood park in just a few short hours. It’s amazing what many hands can accomplish.

Spring with Tree Trust’s Community Forestry also brings a deluge of phone calls from eager Minneapolis and St. Louis Park residents. Tree Trust again facilitated both cities’ annual tree distributions, making 1,750 trees available to residents to plant on their properties. There’s just something about seeing a Mini Cooper drive away with a six foot tree sticking out the back that fills my heart with hope for our urban forest. Multiply that by 1,750 and you have to believe things are looking up…unless, of course, there’s a tornado. 

North Minneapolis distribution

The devastating tornado that ripped through north Minneapolis on May 22nd, ironically during the second day of the Minneapolis tree distribution, took down thousands of trees. Fortunately through fundraising efforts, Tree Trust was able to provide 207, free and low cost trees to residents who lost trees during the storm. This horribly unfortunate event led to an opportunity for Community Forestry to reach out to citizens and fulfill Tree Trust’s mission to transform lives and landscapes. We are lucky to be able to offer this opportunity again in 2012 to residents affected by the storm.

During my maternity leave, fall community plantings continued with Diana and Emily running the show. This fall included two Green Futures plantings, one in Bloomington and another in Sunfish Lake. Because of these two plantings, and the donations that made them possible, 80 more trees were added to the urban forest and approximately fifty people learned how to properly plant trees. While we may never win the war against the multitude of threats to our urban forest, the 2,200 trees we helped to get in the ground this year sure feels like we may have won at least a battle. Trees are good. Plant on.

-Karen Zumach, Community Forestry Manager

Trees planted in N. Mpls & around the metro

It has been a busy fall for Tree Trust's Community Forestry Department. On October 2nd and 3rd staff and 22 volunteers distributed 207 trees to homeowners in North Minneapolis who lost trees in the May 22, 2011 tornado. This distribution was a part of our North Minneapolis Reforest Project (NMRF), which was supported by grants from State Farm Insurance, the Xcel Energy Foundation, and an in-kind donation from Bachman's Nursery.

Tree varieties included Prairiefire Crabapple, Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry, Northern Hackberry, and Royal Star Magnolia.

Our Young Adult Conservation Corps program was also involved in the North Minneapolis Reforest Project. On October 11th they planted trees for individuals who participated in NMRF but were unable to plant their own trees.

On October 6th, Tree Trust's Community Forestry Manager, Karen Zumach, was awarded the President's Award from the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture (MSA) for her many contributions to community forestry in the Twin Cities. Tree Trust also received the Practitioner's Award of Excellence from MSA for its innovative planting projects with the City of St Louis Park.

Tree Trust had a Green Futures tree planting at Marsh Lake Park in Bloomington on October 8th. We had beautiful weather and were able to involve 33 volunteers in the planting of 44 trees. Varieties included Boulevard Linden, Valley Forge Elm, Swamp White Oak, Prairiefire Crabapple, Autumn Blaze Maple, and Quaking Aspen.

We have one more Green Futures planting this fall on Saturday, October 15th at Musser Park in Sunfish Lake. Sign up to volunteer here, or contact Felecia Schmidt at felecias@treetrust.org or 952-767-3884 for more information.

Tree Trust's last Community Forestry event of the fall will be a Learning with Trees planting on October 17th at Hilltop Primary School in Minnetrista. The Learning with Trees program helps schools around the state build outdoor learning areas on school grounds that include trees, shrubs, and benches. Groups of students are led by Tree Trust staff and volunteers, and every student has the opportunity to be involved in planting a tree.

For more information about our Community Forestry programs, contact Diana Preisen at dianap@treetrust.org or 612-590-1421.

Help replace trees lost in the storm

The damage caused by the storm on Sunday, May 22 was so extensive that President Obama has pledged to send aid to the Twin Cities to help us rebuild. Tree Trust is joining the effort by helping to replant trees in the metro, including Minneapolis and other cities hit the hardest.

You can help. Make a donation to our Green Futures fund to support our reforestation efforts. Every donation made to Green Futures will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a local family foundation, stretching your donation even further.

Donations are 100% tax-deductible, and will be turned into trees that are planted during community events in public parks this fall. The more money raised, the more trees we can plant.

Make a donation to Green Futures today, and actively participate in replanting the Twin Cities.

Happy Earth Day!

Friday, April 22 is Earth Day, a day that inspires and mobilizes people around the world to to protect and preserve the Earth’s natural environment.
You’ve probably heard the expression, “Earth Day is every day!” And that’s especially true at Tree Trust.

Every day, for 35 years, we have worked in partnership with youth and adults to improve the local environment and transform their lives. We still do this today, because we believe there is a need — now more than ever — to connect people with one another and the natural world.

As we celebrate our 35th anniversary, we’re proud of our impact on the Twin Cities.

We’ve involved 13,000 volunteers in the planting and distribution of 76,000 trees and 380,000 seedlings, shrubs and plants.

We’ve educated 105,000 students on the importance of protecting and preserving the environment.

We’ve helped 42,000 youth and adults gain job skills and self-confidence while leaving a lasting, positive impact in their own communities.

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day? How about getting involved with us? Volunteer to plant trees this spring or make a donation to support our work.

In observance of Earth Day, we hope you'll come together around our common environmental cause: trees for the Twin Cities. Whether you volunteer, donate, or spread the word, your support makes our community that much greener.

Green Futures for Inver Grove Heights

On Saturday, October 16, Tree Trust gave 46 community volunteers the tools and training they needed to plant 80 trees in Inver Grove Height’s Rich Valley Athletic Complex as part of Tree Trust’s Green Futures initiative. Mayor George Tourville was present to thank volunteers and educate attendees about Inver Grove Heights’ forestry efforts.

Rich Valley Athletic Complex, a 75-acre park, serves as a major sports complex for Inver Grove Height’s 30,000 residents. Of the park's 700 trees, 100 are ash trees that are threatened by the recent arrival of emerald ash borer to the Twin Cities metro area. This planting pre-forested the park and prevented the loss of shade, wind breaks and other benefits trees bring to the park. Trees planted included Kentucky coffee, hackberry, gingko, red maple and more.

View photos from the planting on Flickr.

Green Futures spring planting season a success!

On June 5, Tree Trust wrapped up a successful spring of Green Futures plantings. St. Paul received 60 new, properly planted trees in Cherokee Park, where a large percentage of the mature trees are ash and will likely succumb to emerald ash borer - a destructive, wood-boring beetle - in the not-too-distant future. And Minnetrista will reap the benefits of 120 new trees in the City's brand new and no-longer-barren Lisle Park.

This year, our spring Green Futures plantings were especially meaningful for Tree Trust. Our dear friend and CEO, Dave Hawes, passed away in February after a battle with cancer, and the majority of the trees we planted in Minnetrista and St. Paul were donated in his memory. Many of his family were there to help plant the trees; his daughter even shared some memories of her father's life-long commitment to forestry and to Tree Trust. We're proud to have been able to honor him in this special, meaningful way.

Green Futures for Cherokee Park!

50 volunteers got together on Saturday, June 5, 2010 at St. Paul's Cherokee Park to plant 60 trees as part of Tree Trust's Green Futures initiative.

A little light drizzle didn't spoil a thing: families, couples, and individuals worked together to get trees in the ground the right way. These new trees are off to a great start, ready to take the place of the mighty ash trees when they succumb to emerald ash borer.

This event was especially meaningful for Tree Trust because all the trees were planted in memory of our CEO, David Hawes, who passed away in February after a battle with cancer. Dave's family joined other volunteers to plant in honor of his lifelong love of trees and commitment to transforming lives and landscapes during his 30+ years at Tree Trust.

Thanks so much to:

• The volunteers and donors who made this event possible
• Our trusty trainers for teaching everyone how to plant correctly
• The City of St. Paul for applying for a Green Futures grant and working to get more trees in the parks
• Amore Coffee for donating the coffee 
• Mississippi Market for donating a gift card to buy snacks for our volunteers
• Our Landscape Services team for providing event support
• Our Community Forestry Manager, Karen Zumach, for creating the landscape plan and facilitating the event

This is the last Green Futures planting for the spring, but we're currently accepting donations for plantings in the fall. If someone has a birthday coming up, a new baby is coming into the world, a friend is getting married or having an anniversary, or someone close to you just really loves trees, think about making a donation in their honor!

Check out more photos from the event in this Flickr set.

Press Release: Green Futures for Minnetrista's Lisle Park

For immediate release: Green Futures for Minnetrista's Lisle Park

Minnetrista, MN - June 4, 2010 - On Saturday, May 22, 2010, Tree Trust staff gathered over 70 community volunteers to plant 120 trees in Minnetrista's Lisle Park as part of Tree Trust's Green Futures initiative. Severe weather rolled in halfway through the event and curtailed the planting, but Tree Trust's Young Adult Conservation Corps finished the job the following Monday.

The planting began with a brief program recognizing the donations to Tree Trust's Green Futures initiative that made the event possible. Many trees were donated in memory of Tree Trust's CEO David Hawes, who passed away in February after a battle with cancer, and his family said a few words about his life-long commitment to Tree Trust and passion for trees.

A workshop followed to teach all volunteers how to plant trees the right way. Trees planted included red maple, Japanese tree lilac, red splendor crabapple, hackberry, basswood, thornless honey locust, black hills spruce and quaking aspen.

After about half the trees were planted, flickers of lightning appeared in the distance and rain started to fall. Many volunteers took shelter in their vehicles to wait out the unsafe weather, but the storm refused to pass. On Monday, a crew of Tree Trust Young Adult Conservation Corps job-trainees worked at the park to plant the remaining trees.

Lisle Park, a 15.5-acre city park on the south side of the Hunters Crest neighborhood, was chosen as a Green Futures planting site through a competitive proposal process. The City of Minnetrista submitted an application to Tree Trust that demonstrated the financial and environmental need for trees in Lisle Park and the City's commitment to ensuring the trees' long-term survival.

This Tree Trust - Green Futures planting was made possible by individual donations, a matching grant from a local family foundation, and a contribution from Cargill, Inc. - BiOH ®polyols division. For additional information or to get involved with Tree Trust's Green Futures, contact Tracie Huhn, Director of Development and Marketing, at tracieh@treetrust.org or 651-644-5800.


Tree Trust is a Minnesota 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1976 to provide out-of-work individuals with training and paid jobs reforesting the community. They have since expanded to provide integrated employment training, environmental education and community forestry programs to youth and adults in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.

The City of Minnetrista is located on the western bays of Lake Minnetonka and the agricultural rich plains and idyllic woodlands of southwestern Hennepin County. The name Minnetrista is derived from the Native American word "minne" meaning waters, and "trista" meaning crooked. The 32 square miles is home to 6,234 residents who enjoy the rural residential and lakeside settings. Whether you're just passing through, or spending some time at one of the enchanting area parks, you will be welcomed in Minnetrista!

Celebrate Earth Day's birthday with trees for the Twin Cities

April 22, 2010 will be the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, started in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as a grassroots movement to raise awareness about the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been working on separate environmental issues - from pollution and oil spills to the extinction of wildlife - came together around a common cause and began the modern environmental movement.

In celebration of Earth Day's birthday, we hope you'll come together around our common environmental cause: trees for the Twin Cities. Whether you volunteer, donate, or spread the word, your support makes our community that much greener.

Here's what we're doing to help the environment this spring, along with tips for how you can help.

Emerald ash borer in Minneapolis

It was only a matter of time before the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that has the potential to wipe out all of Minnesota's ash trees, would cross the border from St. Paul into Minneapolis. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture confirmed yesterday that the pest had indeed been found in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, a mile or so from the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul where it was spotted last year.

Tree Trust's administrative office is just minutes away from these sites of infestation, and the impending possibility of losing all 200,000 of the Twin Cities' ash trees echoes the crisis that sparked the creation of our organization: the devastation caused by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s. Tree Trust's founders responded to that crisis by training and paying un- and under-employed individuals to reforest our communities.

Today, our Green Futures initiative is poised to respond to the threat of emerald ash borer by getting new trees in the ground before the pest destroys the Twin Cities' ash trees. You can help us plant tomorrow's trees today with a donation to Green Futures, and your money will go even further thanks to a dollar-for-dollar match from a local family foundation that helped us launch the initiative.

Please remember: don't transport firewood! Buy it where you burn it to help slow the spread of emerald ash borer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/ / CC BY 2.0

Green Futures volunteers plant trees at Lake Elmo Park Reserve

On Saturday, October 3, 2009, Tree Trust gave 33 community volunteers the tools and training they needed to plant 100 trees at Lake Elmo Park Reserve.

In this video, the volunteers talk about why they came out to brave the muck and tell us a bit about how to plant a tree.

Learn more about Green Futures.

See our current volunteer opportunities.

Community invests in Spring Park's green future

Over 60 volunteers planted 165 trees along the Dakota Trail on Saturday, May 16, 2009 to transform the area into a family-friendly green space and improve the environment.

Tree Trust organized the planting as part of our Green Futures initiative, which turns charitable donations into trees. With the help of a dollar-for-dollar match from a local foundation, Tree Trust launched Green Futures to plant 5,000 trees in parks and neighborhoods throughout the Twin Cities metro area over the next five years.